Swedish “meatballs” meat sauce with egg noodles is a delicious, quick, easy, inexpensive dinner and a nice change from the usual noodle, or Hamburger Helper routine.
Do you love meatballs but sometimes don’t feel like getting your hands all icky and taking the time to make them? Me too! I was recently having a random craving for Swedish Meatballs, which I’ve never made. I didn’t have a recipe of my own to reference so I did a Google search and a whole slew of recipes came up- they all looked so good! Which recipe do I choose?
I decided I wanted to do something Swedish Meatball-ish for the blog and, being the rebel I am, couldn’t conform to the standard Swedish Meatball recipe. I decided to kinda sorta deconstruct it- making a slightly different, easier, less messy, Swedish Bolognese, or dare I say, Swedish Hamburger Helper. Yikes!
Did I just say the “H.H.” words as in a meal from a box? Remember those? Maybe you still eat them. Nothing wrong with them. They’re certainly quick and get the job done, but they’re usually loaded with salt so we steer clear from the “helper” type purchases. Plus, we both like to cook so we’ll just make our own!
While this recipe looses the breadcrumbs and eggs, it still maintains the classic Swedish Meatball ingredients using ground pork and lean ground beef. I chose to use 90% lean ground beef because ground pork tends to be on the fattier side and I’m not a fan of really greasy, fatty meat. Ok. Sometimes I am, just not this time :).
I found the juices and grease that was leftover from browning the meat was a perfect base for making the delicious, creamy sauce. So to make up for my savings, I added 4 Tbsps. of butter. OK. So now I’m contradicting myself. It sounds like a lot, but this recipe should feed at least 4 people, so it’s not too bad. Right?
Whisk in the flour, broth, sour cream, allspice and nutmeg and you have a tasty, spicy, Scandinavian sauce to switch-up your usual dinner routine that is perfect for drowning egg noodles in. And since my daily to-do lists seem to be growing…. and growing…. that leaves me with less and less time for cooking and cleaning- which is bad…. and good. Adding the noodles in the sauce is a time and cleaning saver = SCORE! And voila! A delicious, comforting 1 pan meal. Hope you guys enjoy!
- 8 ozs. egg noodles
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 cup (1 medium onion), chopped
- ¾ lb. 90% lean ground beef
- ¾ lb. ground pork
- 1 tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. each allspice, nutmeg
- ⅓ cup flour
- ¼ cup (4 Tbsps.) butter
- 5 cups low sodium beef broth, divided ½ cup and 4½ cups
- ⅔ cup sour cream
- 1 tsp. sugar
- ½ tsp. black pepper
- ¼ tsp. each allspice, nutmeg, salt
- Heat oil in a large saute pan on medium heat. Add onion and saute about 5 minutes.
- Add beef and pork and cook until browned, about 5-6 minutes. Use a potato masher to crumble the meat.
- Sprinkle in salt and spices and mix to combine.
- Using a large slotted spoon, transfer meat mixture to a plate leaving the juices in the pan.
- In a measuring cup whisk together ½ cup broth with the sour cream until well combined and set aside.
- Add butter and flour to the saute pan (the heat is still on medium) and whisk together until you get a smooth paste. Continue whisking for a minute or 2.
- Turn off heat and whisk in the 4½ cups of beef broth stirring for about a minute. Now add the ½ cup broth mixed with the sour cream and continue whisking another minute until everything is well combined and smooth.
- Whisk in sugar, salt and spices and increase heat to medium.
- Add noodles and meat. Cover and bring to a boil. Uncover and simmer cooking 5-7 minutes until noodles are tender, stirring occasionally.
Great meal. Throw in some frozen green peas for about 6 mins. and you have your vegetable–Still a 1 pan meal! YEA! A keeper!
You can certainly sneak some veggies into this one! Glad you liked it!